SHINING A LIGHT ON DARKNESS: Representatives from and supporters of the Goldendale Observatory showed up last Tuesday at the Klickitat County Commissioners meeting to press for
compliance with dark sky policies. A slide from a presentation by Bob Yoesle shows the dramatic difference in night visibility between light spillage on the left and safe, dark-sky friendly
lighting on the right. Concerns about safety and costs of dark-sky lighting were raised and addressed, with the group asserting safety could actually be enhanced and costs could be lessened with
environmentally sound lighting.

Okanogan County Electric Cooperative (OCEC) has completed the conversion of its street lighting system to a new system using LED, Dark Sky compliant lighting fixtures. The project involved
changing out the 86 OCEC owned fixtures on power poles throughout the upper valley. Lighting owned by the town or other electric utilities is not part of this program.

Chances are you can't see the Milky Way at night. That's because the glare from city
lights washes out all but the brightest stars where most people live. A smattering of Northwest cities and counties are taking action by passing new rules for outdoor lighting. It's not all
about the stars. And some people take a dim view of light regulation.

Light pollution is an ever-growing problem that is blocking out the night sky in major cities, obscuring all but the moon and a few bright stars and planets. Bob Parks, executive director of the
International Dark Sky Association joins "CBS This Morning: Saturday" to discuss what can be done to combat this growing problem.